posted on December 31, 2005 05:42:05 PM new
Any suggestions other than listing on Ebay to sell a large quanity of glass, porcelain, and pottery? I have been selling for approx. six yrs. on Ebay. At present I have 900 items listed on Ebay (to take advantage of the 10 cent promo). The ordinary Ebay listing fees are killing me. In the past have tried an Ebay Store for several months without much success. I have thought about selling the glass on a strictly glass website and the pottery & porcelain on strictly a pottery website. Any suggestions? Thanks
posted on December 31, 2005 07:47:14 PM new
I know it is popular to complain about ebay fees, but I've consigned items to auctions where I pay an 18-20% seller fee. When I add up all my fees including paypal, it isn't that high. The only difference between 10 cent listing day and regular listing day isn't all that much. The final value fees and paypal are the same. It could be the sell through is not high, because of a lot of competition. I'm not up on specific sites to sell, might be worth considering. Giving a store a couple of months doesn't seem to be giving it a lot of time. I do a lot of store business, but I spend a lot of time marketing my store to previous customers, and those outside of ebay. I do get traffic from ebay, but that is a smaller part of my overall sales.
posted on December 31, 2005 11:19:46 PM new
Have you thought about having an estate sale?
It might be a good alternative to paying listing and final value fees, and the time to scan and create listings. Plus you won't have postage costs eating into your item's value.
posted on January 1, 2006 05:58:01 AM new
Are you only willing to sell online? We don't know where you are or what you are selling, but if you really want to liquidate, see if you can find a flat-rate (no commission) group shop, and price it to sell.
Frankly, low end glass/china is pretty much a dead market now, and unless these are items people are actively hunting for, I don't think there is any "magic" online outlet.
posted on January 1, 2006 08:32:46 AM new
We also have many things from the house we moved from and are considering a stall in an antique mall. Most of it is too good for a yard sale, and too comnmon for eBay.
The decision is which one - the one closest to the house which is huge and has good traffic and visibility or go to the other side of the mountians to Vail or Aspen and find a mall there.
I would suggest getting an appraiser to look at some of it. We did and were surprised at what he said for a lot of the items.
posted on January 1, 2006 08:56:40 AM new
I just came back from a visit with a lady who lived in London eons ago and was active in dealing in Oriental antiques and jewerly ,she would buy in Christie/sotheby auctions and resell in her store in London,those were the good old days where she would gross 10k British pounds a day.
She came to this country and once had a shop in Manhattan and never make enough to pay rent.
She came to Houston and retired but dabbled in antiques,runnng 3 booths at one time and she can hardly pay for the rent of the booths.
Now she is alone and retired ,her house is packed with GENUINE antiques but the diamond and jadeite are in the bank safe deposit box.
Her second husband who past away managed to amass a huge selection of american toys.
So one day she took some of the old toys,old american silver,turquoise jewelry and belt buckles to an outlet which will list these items for her on Ebay.
She waited for 2 hours while they looked up how much her items are worth and adviced her the antique belt buckle should be listed at 99 cents starting bid.
Anyway,I looked at all her stuff and many are authentic and beautiful,including those she has on her kitchen wall,not to mention the ivory carvings she has in her locked closet and those ornate furniture in her living room.
Most of her stuff are ebay materials but when I told her how much she would get on Ebay like a few hundred dollars,she always said she paid 4 to 5 figures for those items or they are worth 4-5 figures as she is an appraiser as well as a dealer.
Do any of you have any good suggestion as how she could sell her collection at a decent price?
Ebay store?
posted on January 1, 2006 09:31:16 AM new
Time to face facts, folks.
eBay has destroyed most collectibles markets because it made ample quantities of any given object readily available to collectors and at bargain prices.
For many items of value, the only recourse is to keep them, or bequeath them to someone who appreciates them.
Selling is no longer a very viable option.
I've seen this with my antique china, antique silver and art.
posted on January 1, 2006 09:38:02 AM new
By the way, a little understanding about how appraisers get business is in order.
Word of mouth is important, because it's expensive to advertise. So an appraiser has a vested interest in pleasing you. Specifically, he or she is well aware that what you want to hear is the "Antiques Roadshow" price, not the current actual cash value of the item.
A happy customer tells her friends, who naturally would also like to hire such a discerning and knowledgeable expert.
You might find an appraiser forthright enough to give you a market value, if you make it abundantly clear that what you want to do is price your goods for sale, you have no emotional ties to the objects and that if something is worthless, s/he should say so. Sentimental value gets in the way constantly.
posted on January 1, 2006 09:49:52 AM new
I totally agree about appraisers. The guy we had did a TV show in NY and on Cablevision. John Bruno They cancelled his show in lieu of a sports memorabila appraisel show. We had seen him at various antiques shows too and told him exactly what we wanted to do and why we wanted to know the values, if any. In most cases he gave us what he thought an auction could bring, and what insurance value would be.
Everything we had done was left to us, so we did not have any 'investment' in any of it and could sell it for under any value he put on it. It was a great experience - expensive since he did over 300 items in 7 hours, but he did uncover some real treasures and 1 gold watch that is over 100 years old and an heirloom for our family. Had he not seen it, we would have just sold it as a Victorian Gold Watch.
posted on January 1, 2006 12:18:44 PM new
hwahwa, the lady needs to take her items back to Christies. If they really do have a provenance from them, they should do well enough to justify the expense.
IT is cheaper for her to take them to a good auction house than it would be to take a beating on eBay.
I haven't been to Houston in ages, but I seem to remember that Chrisites had an office there. An auctioneer friend of mine would send his "good stuff" to them.
posted on January 1, 2006 12:46:07 PM new
thanks for the suggestion.
The stuff she bot from Christie of London was in the 70s and long sold.
Now as I recall the visit,she has tried various auction houses such as Butterfield and Buterfield,Hart Gallery,Christie etc and she must not have gotten any good results,else she wont be taking her stuff to this Ebay outlet just so she can list her antique belt buckle for 99 cents!!
The saddest part of all these sagas is that hope springs eternal,they are always hoping someone will perform the miracle -may be a new venue no one has heard of and which exists (like on MARS),or someone has access to a group of buyers who still spend money like in the good old days (70s and 80s)or someone whose sheer personality and charisma is so strong it will just blast the customers away or someone who knows of a secret way of selling yet to be revealed to the public.
[ edited by hwahwa on Jan 1, 2006 12:52 PM ]
[ edited by hwahwa on Jan 1, 2006 12:53 PM ]
[ edited by hwahwa on Jan 1, 2006 12:54 PM ]
posted on January 1, 2006 01:36:13 PM new
..Gallery,Christie etc and she must not have gotten any good results,else she wont be taking her stuff to this Ebay outlet just so she can list her antique belt buckle for 99 cents!!
..//
Not sure what "not gotten..." means here; did they not want the consignment or did they not feel they could get the prices she hoped for? Since the only way these firms make money is by selling, they are always looking for good merchandise, so this seems odd. I know we can't assume anything, but in my experience, every time I hear of someone's "antique belt buckle" it turns out to be one of those repro or "fantasy" pieces.
As with most of these discussions, we really have no idea what this merchandise actally is like; antique dealers don't necessarily keep the best for themselves - they often leave estates of stuff that just didn't sell.
[ edited by Damariscotta on Jan 1, 2006 01:37 PM ]
